


The Ghost King and the Nightmare King

by mermoon



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-10-11 09:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10461138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mermoon/pseuds/mermoon
Summary: A crossover between The Heroes of Olympus and The Rise of the Guardians. What happens, when Nico di Angelo, the ghost king, and Pitch Black, the king of nightmares, cross paths?





	1. Chapter 1

_”I'm going to honor my promise. Then that's it. I'm leaving - forever.”_

Jason turns back to face Nico again, but to no avail. Nico has disappeared into the shadows.

What seemed like a sneaky, smooth exit out of the situation, becomes a literal crash to the pavement. Shadow traveling such a long distance after everything that’s happened sucks out Nico’s energy completely. The exhaustion takes over the fear and anxiety from before.

He falls asleep. The nightmares take him, and this time he isn’t in control of his dreams.

 

* * *

 

Pitch Black, the boogeyman, the king of nightmares happens to be strolling by, watching Sandman put everyone asleep. Oh, how the happiness oozes from Sandman’s dreams, it’s making Pitch feel positively ill. He watches the golden threads linger across the night sky. As one passes him by, he gushes his fingers through it, turning the golden trail of sand black.

Surrounded by the sickeningly happy dreams, Pitch feels nightmares somewhere close by. This time they aren’t being created by him. Sometimes nightmares don’t need their king to exist; Sometimes the human mind creates them all by itself. He can feel the fear, the nightmares’ pull on him, and he follows the dark, black lining of it.

He strolls to a park, where no one is to be seen. The last of the joggers and dog-pissers have gone home and Pitch assumes the park lights will go out soon enough as well. He makes his way forward and from a distance he sees a single park bench under a single park light. A dark figure - a boy - is stretched across the bench, Pitch’s nightmares pacing and whinnying around it.

The boy is young. His dark hair is out-grown and messy and he’s wearing a bomber jacket that has seen its better days. But how terribly young he is, Pitch wonders, as he looks through the boy’s dreams to find the reason to the nightmares' presence.

The boy has been through a lot. He’s fallen in love, been betrayed, his sister has died, he’s shut himself out of the company of his peers, he’s had to hide his true self only to fall in love again. And for some reason Pitch can feel _death_ present at every corner, at every feeling floating through the boy’s mind. No wonder he has nightmares.

For some reason, the boy is having nightmares of angels now. Some of them have wings, others don’t. One of them has a tanned skin and golden hair, and he flies with the wind. For a moment Pitch feels like it isn’t a bad dream at all, and it feels somewhat nostalgic to Pitch himself. Then the darkness comes, the whispers that eventually grow into distinctive voices shouting in despair.

Pitch steps out of the dream and pokes the boy on the shoulder. As the boy won’t stir, Pitch turns to the nightmares and tells them to scram. The nightmares - in their horse-like shape - dissipate into shadows. They’re not wanted here now. He steps back into the shadows just as the boy begins to wake.

 

* * *

 

Nico opens his eyes and the lamp above him makes great effort at blinding him. Hazel must’ve forgotten the light on again. Thinking of his dreams, he suddenly becomes aware of his surroundings. He’s not on Argo II. The matter of fact, he has no idea where he is. Sitting up fast he looks around. The shadows around him feel thicker, more impenetrable than usual.

Nothing feels right. It isn’t right that he cannot see through the shadows. Nico reaches for his sword hanging on his belt and rests his hand on its handle. Trying his best to see through the darkness, he touches his shoulder. For some reason it feels like something has touched him there. Rubbing his shoulder he stands up.

 

* * *

 

Pitch Black knows nothing can penetrate his shadows. When surrounding people in the complete darkness, they lose their sense of direction and become afraid. Those people never return to the woods at night, and Pitch has fuel for their nightmares for months.

This boy however, seems most peculiar. He’s not afraid of the darkness around him. It’s almost as if he’s not that scared after all. All brave boys have their nightmares, Pitch figures as he steps into the light.

 

* * *

 

Slowly, a slender, tall man with grey skin and black clothing slithers from the darkness. The shadows seem to follow him, like black smoke behind him. Nico takes two steps back and draws his sword, eyes focused on the man. He seems impossibly tall and impossibly thin. His jaw is big and forehead weird. The man’s expression falls quickly from intrigued to utterly confused.

 

* * *

 

Pitch stops.

_This isn’t right._

Or, it is _right_ , but definitely the most unusual thing.

The second Pitch steps out of the darkness into the light, the boy makes eye contact. His eyes are so, very dark.

_He sees me._

“What do you want?” the boy spits out and his voice shakes. There it is. The fear.

But Pitch Black is filled with confusion. While he feels the pull of a smile at his lips, he cannot make a word out of his mouth. There’s confusion, there’s a sudden burst of joy and misery all mixed up together, and Pitch doesn’t know what to feel.

 _He sees me_ , the words repeat in his head. _He sees me, he sees me._

As Pitch studies him, the boy’s expression softens. The fear steps aside and his eyebrows knit in question. Pitch straightens up his back and hears his nightmares whinnying behind him. He turns around, he needs to get out. _Fast._ The lightbulb above them makes a clinking sound as it smashes and the rest of the park lights follow it.

Just as he feels the shadows take him, he hears the boy’s rushed, but quiet words.

_“Wait!”_


	2. Chapter 2

The night is warm and the sky is swimming in stars when Nico di Angelo finally gets his first good night's sleep after who knows how long. He rests his head on the stony toes of Athena Parthenos and drifts to peaceful sleep. He wakes up under the stars, well rested and feeling somewhat content. Nightmares leave him be; There are no black horses, no golden strands of sand that turn to black. Just sleep.

It’s night time when he wakes up again. It had been only moments before sunrise when they reached Portugal, and Nico had passed out immediately upon rematerializing. Reyna is now stirring a campfire and Coach Hedge is snoring nearby. While Reyna hasn’t seen him get up, he takes the chance and falls back on his back, looking at the stars. Nico prefers darkness to sunlight, but prefers moon and stars to clouds. But on the other hand, he likes thunder and lightning. And wind. And…

He gives up on the thought and focuses on the stars and counts the constellations he can find. But soon sleep is creeping up on him again, and it looks like the stars are going out. He closes his eyes for a moment, but the calm feeling in his chest is starting to crackle and the sleep won’t agree with him anymore. He flicks his eyes open, but the stars are still out. Sitting up, he looks around only to find himself surrounded by impenetrable darkness.

The temperature drops. The thick darkness around him screams in silence, without words. Nico feels dread and fear radiating from it. He reaches for his stygian sword, but doesn’t unsheathe it. Strangely, a feeling of nostalgia fills him. Like all of this has happened before.

He tries to see through the darkness, tries to make out figures or a face, but it’s no use. Fear tickles his toes as he sits on the ground. _You will fail_ , the shadows whisper.

“I can’t fail," he whispers back, but unsure. He knows he can fail. He could fail Reyna and Coach and he could fail Jason and Percy and the entire camp. He thinks of Hazel and sees utter disappointment in her eyes, and Frank beside her, looking disgusted. Percy won’t talk to him and Jason won’t even look at him.

Nico pulls his legs up, as if he could get further away from the shadows.

“Leave me alone," he whispers.

To his surprise, the shadows dissolve. Slowly the light and warmth of the campfire reaches him again and he realizes he’s been shivering. Reyna is looking at him with a raised eyebrow, but Nico knows she hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. If she would’ve, she’d be up and about, sword drawn and ready to fight and by now she’d probably be by his side.

 _This isn’t normal_ , Nico thinks to himself. He remembers a face, but only barely. A tall man, gray skin, shadows. For some reason, Nico remembers horses. Not _pegasi_ or storm spirits, he remembers black, scary horses. This isn’t just his anxiety acting up. _Sure_ , the darkness probably feeds on his anxiety, Nico sneers, but he doubts he’s hallucinating.

Nico thinks of Jason and his horse of a storm spirit, Tempest, as he stretches out again. The exhaustion is catching up with him and Nico gladly submits to it, drifting back to dreamless sleep.

 

* * *

 

First it is like a game for Pitch Black.

When Sandman comes out to sprinkle his dream sand on sleeping children, Pitch pays no mind to the golden threads. He looks for a single, black thread to follow, but it seems to be nowhere to be found. As it turns out, the boy has moved hundreds of miles away from the park of their first encounter. _To Greece_ , of all places.

Pitch tells his favourite nightmare, Onyx, to search for the boy. Pitch tries following him even during the day but seems unable to keep up with him. It seems like Pitch is always one step behind. So it becomes a game of tag or hide-and-seek. Pitch wonders if the boy knows they’re playing.

When he finally finds the boy, he is in deep sleep.

A campfire has been lit next to a huge, golden statue of a Greek goddess of some sort. The boy is sleeping next to the statue, and he isn’t alone. A girl with black hair and Roman clothing is carrying firewood towards their campfire. Next to the boy a small man – _no, a satyr –_ is snoring his life away. Pitch raises his eyebrow at the hooved man.

So, that is why they were in Greece. Pitch ties a few red strings together and makes the connection between increase in nightmares towards the earth itself and these three people. These humans must be demigods, and the fact that the boy is traveling so fast must be because of some kind of godly powers Pitch knows them to inherit from their parents.

Pitch Black is no stranger to Greek and Roman demigods. As long as there have been people, there have been nightmares. But when it comes to demigods, Pitch usually leaves the job to his Greek (and Roman) counterpart. The last time Pitch had been talking to Phobetor, it had been a complete _nightmare_. The god preferred to stay in animal form at all times and was so focused on giving Pitch nightmares their conversation resulted into nothing. Once they separated, Pitch decided not to deal with demigods.

A defeated sigh leaves his lips, as he decides to turn away. The mystery boy, revealed. The nightmare king, disappointed. Demigods often have nightmares, for sometimes their tasks are extremely traumatic. The nightmares of the boy lose their shine in Pitch’s eyes as he attempts to leave.

He tells the nightmares to get away from the boy. Just before leaving, he turns to look at him, and finds the boy awake. He’s sitting up but cannot see Pitch because of the shadows. A wave of fear, doubt and shame washes over Pitch. Beside him, his nightmares take unstable forms of humans, changing from a curly-haired girl to a tall boy with glasses. _“You will fail”_ , the humans seem to say.

“ _I can’t fail,"_  the boy replies.

To his surprise, Pitch feels compassion, a desire to console. But, as he steps a little closer, immediately his shadows also grow closer to the boy. The boy pulls away.

“ _Leave me alone,"_  he says. There’s fear in his voice, but also weariness.

Pitch turns away and leaves with his shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was hard to write, mostly because of my struggles with the English language. I'm sorry if there are mistakes! I have planned this as a five-part story so I hope you like itttt


	3. Chapter 3

After their last encounter, Pitch Black decides to stay away.

Pitch decided the boy wasn’t worth the trouble. By pursuing him there lingered a chance of running into the Roman god, Phobetor, again. Pitch didn’t want to risk breaking some kind of Olympian ground rules against meddling with the Greek and Roman gods’ territories, and therefore unleashing the wrath of some hundreds of gods. Besides, the boy was young – Pitch assumes 15 – how could he help Pitch in his task for world domination anyway? A certain frost spirit had been terribly young as well. The young ones seemed to be very good at fighting their personal nightmares.

Pitch travels back to the US soil and finds himself in the city of Roswell. Sandman is nowhere to be seen, so Pitch has the town all to himself. He digs up the deepest fears from the citizens’ minds and releases alien-shaped nightmares all around the city. It’s all a good laugh.

It’s a warm night, when he feels the boy’s presence again. The feel of his nightmares has changed, somehow, but Pitch finds trouble in putting his finger on it.

Without a second thought he collects his shadows.

He reforms near a paved clearing, in the shadow of the trees. Unlike before, this time the boy is awake, and in battle stance with his companions, the girl and the satyr, near him. Before them, a Roman legionnaire, mocking and laughing at them. The boy is weak, incredibly weak, he seems almost invisible.

_“Nico, do what you’ve got to do. I’ve got your back”_ , the girl says and their eyes meet. The boy sucks strength from the girl and becomes completely visible again.

_Nico_.

Then, the most delightful thing happens. The ground turns black, withering all existing weeds between the cobblestones. It seems as if the sun itself gets shadowed by the boy.

Pitch sees the boy in the underworld, _Tartarus_. He sees Nico on a flying ship, he sees him being scolded by an angel. Pitch recognizes many of the faces from his nightmares earlier. The blonde boy with glasses appears often. The agony, misery, fear and shame all flow from the boy, crushing his enemies.

The air turns cold, freezing cold, and a surge of nostalgia flushes over Pitch. The ground starts to freeze, creating frosty ice patterns beneath Nico’s feet. Pitch thinks of Jack. _What goes better together, than cold and dark?_

An open smile grows on Pitch. He steps out of the woods and stands next to Nico, lending his power to him.

The boy walks closer to the Roman, and eventually makes him – or his spirit – dissipate into the ground. Nico stands still for a moment, and then loses consciousness. Pitch claps his hands together in delight. The boy is _perfect_. Better than Jack Frost could _ever_ have been, he adds in his mind with a bitter undertone.

The only problem is, that unleashing all of his misery has drained out all of the energy he might’ve had left. Pitch follows as his friends do everything they can to bring the boy back.

It takes them _three days_ , and the boy’s dreams are going crazy in the meanwhile. By the time Nico finally wakes up, Pitch Black is nowhere to be seen. The clearest dream the boy will remember however, will be of the nightmare king standing beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very short chapter this time! Hope you like it!


	4. Chapter 4

The three days of sleep comes to good use, Nico di Angelo thinks to himself as they are being surrounded by monsters, giants, two-headed men and sided by the Greek and the Romans alike. The last shadow-jump to the Half-Blood Hill had been harder on him than he wants to admit. Will Solace was right, the next shadow-traveling he would do would be his last. The darkness won’t go away, and the shadows keep whispering to him. Even now, the shadows of the soldiers around him seem to be calling to him, inviting him to slip into the cold ether and not come back.

He still thinks of Will, when Jason and Piper land beside him. Jason’s focus is quickly turned to him, _too quickly._ Jason’s sand blonde hair is windswept and he looks ready to fight, if not a little tired. Nico quickly turns away from his gaze by nodding and focusing on the enemy.

 

* * *

 

Pitch Black walks by the side of the strawberry fields in the sunlight. He watches as Nico talks to the boy with glasses, gets a yearned, welcome hug from him, straightens his crooked glasses. But this boy, swept by cold wind, speaks of a girl. Pitch feels nothing but disdain towards him. He wants to sweep Nico away from him, keep him from being hurt. They've been through too much lately.

The War.

Pitch had no idea what he was getting himself into, by following the king of ghosts to Long Island. He found himself at a camp, filled with creatures and humans of all sorts. Having decided not to interfere with the on-going shenanigans, Pitch still kept close watch on Nico and his company, just in case the kid would’ve needed help. Nico was still weak after everything, but Pitch could see him getting stronger day by day.

He stands in the shadows as another boy appears and stands next to him, unaware of Pitch’s presence of course. This boy seems to be alight, he radiates warmth and comfort, he even has the same golden hair as the other one! Pitch flinches away from him in disgust as he waves for Nico to come closer.

_The boy has bad taste_ , Pitch thinks to himself as he follows them around. He prefers the golden boy with glasses over this one, even though at the moment this one seems to be making Nico happy. Pitch isn’t sure if he likes _happy_.

_“How can you even talk to me like that? Don’t you know I can summon zombies and skeletons and – “_

_“Right now, you couldn’t summon a wishbone without melting into a puddle of darkness, di Angelo. I told you, no more Underworldly stuff, doctor’s orders.”_

Pitch watches their banter. As much as he hates to agree with the summer boy, Pitch figures Nico di Angelo still needs to heal and gather his strength. So he stays. Besides, the camp seems to be absolutely _filled_ with post-traumatic stress from the war they’ve just experienced and (somewhat) survived. Pitch makes himself at home under the beds of the demigods at Camp Half-Blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I posted two chapters in one day! This one is very short as well, but the next one will be a bit longer, promise! I've come to realise I've been mostly writing from Pitch's POV, but I can't help it, it's too fun!


	5. Chapter 5

Weak. Weak weak weak.

Nico di Angelo knows he’s weak. It shouldn’t be so rough on him. The war, the confessions, the underworld, Will, Percy, Jason, it’s all too much.

Leo is still missing, and no one knows which way they should look, what they should do or say or think. So many have been lost, so many been left with trauma and nightmares. At the same time, the camps have been united in alliance, so many new friendships, partnerships, bonds have been created, and the happiness seems contagious. And still, the shadows of the deceased and the missing loom behind every glance and every smile.

For Nico, the shadows are especially draining. After he confessed his (already faded) feelings to Percy the air had cleared between Nico and the rest. To be honest, he dares to think he’s become closer to everyone in the camp. And especially Will Solace. Will is determined to nurture Nico back to health, and yes, he has been healing. Nico doesn’t flinch at touch anymore, he smiles a lot more than he used to, even the butterflies in his stomach feel kinda nice, when he allows himself to feel it.

But his physical strength – it won’t increase. He goes on walks around the camp area, sometimes jogs, he attends fighting practice and even spars with Jason or Hazel. No matter how he practices, how well he eats and follows _doctor’s orders_ , Nico still gets tired fast after the smallest physical exercise. And when he gets tired, the shadows return to whisper. _You’re too weak_ and _you’re going to disappoint_ they seem to whisper. And the urge to shout _I know_ back at the shadow behind the Hades cabin seems irresistible. And the one who’s there to witness the exhaustion, is Jason. His smiles turn into frowns when Nico seems to stumble in his own legs after an intense sparring session. It’s Jason who asks him _are you okay_ instead of _have you been eating_ and _have you slept enough_ and _remember, no shadow traveling_. He’s not okay, not when Jason looks at him like that.

So Nico decides there’s really no one else he can talk to, but Jason. And for once, he realizes, he needs to _talk_. Besides, the look on Jason’s face is priceless when he asks him.

 

* * *

 

_“Can we talk? Or I mean, can I talk to you, about something? If it’s too much it’s okay.”_

Pitch Black sneers when the golden boy’s face falls. It’s painfully obvious how highly _Jason_ thinks of this scrawny, dark kid. And from Pitch’s point of view, he’s a way better choice for a son-in-law than the summer boy, who’s been buzzing around Nico like a fruit fly. Summer boy’s so bright and happy it’s only irritating. Wait, a son-in-law?

Golden boy first shakes his head, meaning _no, it’s okay_ and then nods for _of course I’ll listen,_ resulting in his head spinning around like an owl’s. They leave the arena, walking in silence, and end up at the steps of the Hades cabin. Pitch hops to sit on the window sill around the corner of the cabin, in the shadows, just close enough to hear their talk. They are silent for a while.

 _“It’s too much”_ , Nico exhales and doesn’t seem to know how to continue. But Jason doesn’t push, he waits.

“ _It’s… It’s Will. He’s too… Bright_.”

 _“Bright”_ , Jason repeats.

“ _I think, for some time now, that it’s him that’s causing, that he’s the reason why I’m not recovering. I get tired so fast, I can’t even walk to the arena without getting exhausted, and it’s been months, almost a year since the war ended and I should be getting healthier than this, and I mean I am, I’m happy to be friends with everyone and no one seems to be afraid of me like before and you, I’m glad you’re still there but I feel so… weak._ ”

The words are a dark waterfall and when he reaches the last word he’s out of breath. Pitch crosses his arms in thought.

 _“Are you happy with him?”_ is Jason’s first question. Pitch dislikes the word _happy_ , but still nods in approval of golden boy’s choice of words.

_“I… I mean, yeah, I guess but…”_

_“Nico, does he approve of you the way you are?”_

Pitch snaps his fingers and points his finger through the cabin walls, where he imagines Jason to be sitting. _That_ was a good question. Pitch Black already knows the answer.

“ _He doesn’t want me to do any underworldly stuff.”_

_“In other words, he doesn’t want you to have anything to do with the Underworld.”_

_“I guess, if you put it that way.”_

_“Nico di Angelo, you’re the son of Hades, for gods’ sake. How can you not have anything to do with the Underworld? It’s a part of who you_ are _.”_

Pitch steps down from the window sill, weighing the boys' words in his hands. Pitch, very similarly to Will, had believed the cause of Nico’s lost fatigue to be the presence of too much darkness. Pitch had done his best to stay away while still looking out for the kid. What he had not taken into account, was the fact that this kid is _made of darkness_ , of shadows and death and bones. Black sand dances around Pitch’s fingers, as he walks away from the cabin. He needs some time to think.

 _“There’s something else as well.”_ Nico says and Pitch stops to a halt. _“Ever since that… incident, in Croatia, the shadows, they feel… different.”_

Pitch spins around, his cloak rustling. The shadows swallow him and he reforms to the shadows of the trees across the Hades cabin.

 _“Like, okay, don’t freak out. Ever since traveling with the Athena Parthenos, shadow traveling has been an issue. I, I started fading away. I_ said don’t freak out, Jason! _So, Will told me not to shadow travel, and I haven’t done it, but also during our trip from Greece to back here I sensed this… presence. At first I wondered if it’s the shadows and ghosts from the Underworld inviting me to join them, but now I think it’s something else, it’s like there’s some_ one _, and I’ve seen this figure of a something like a person, but it’s tall and skinny and so dark and I don’t think it’s even Greek. Or Roman. And he appears in my dreams as well, I have dreams of situations that have happened before, but instead he’s there standing beside me and_ – “

_“He?”_

Jason’s smart, Pitch gives him that. He notices the same thing as Pitch does. When Nico talks of the Underworld and the ghosts, there’s fear in his voice (and Pitch enjoys the radiation of it full-heartedly). But when he talks about _this figure_ and that _he appears in his dreams as well_ , there’s something that’s almost affectionate. Pitch’s smile is even wider than it was that day in Buford.

 _“I don’t know what it is, and it’s kinda scary, but at the same time it’s like there’s something that's –”_ to Pitch’s surprise, Nico suddenly looks his way in mid-sentence. “ _– guarding me.”_

Jason looks his way as well, but doesn’t see anything but shadows. Pitch snorts. Of course there’s no bogeyman for brave kids like golden boy. Nico doesn’t seem to see him either but, somehow, he’s acknowledging Pitch’s presence. He _is_ getting stronger, Pitch realises, and the feeling in his chest is pride.

 _“Nico, that’s… worrying. Isn’t it?”_ golden boy says (while Pitch rolls his eyes), absent-mindedly touching Nico’s knee. Nico looks back to Jason and they both seem to be at a loss for words for a moment. Pitch feels like he shouldn’t be watching, but golden boy removes his hand quickly.

“ _Please tell me if you see that… figure, again, okay? And about Will, I… You should probably talk to him, you know. If, if you feel it’s too overbearing for you, and I… yeah.”_

_“Yeah. Talk.”_

_“I’m glad you told me, Nico.”_

_“Me too.”_


End file.
